Promoting Mathematics Competitiveness through Incentives in Mathematics Assessment in Public Secondary Schools in Delta State

Ejakpovi, S. U. and Uveruveh, F. O.
Keywords: Mathematics Competitiveness Mathematics Incentives Education and Secondary Schools
Journal of Inter-Disciplinary Studies on Contemporary Issues 2019 5(1/2), 81-90. Published: June 14, 2022

Abstract

This paper examines how incentives in Mathematics Assessment can spur competitiveness in the subject. It is a survey whose research population is twenty-two thousand, three hundred and twenty (22,320) students from twenty-seven (27) public senior secondary schools in Uvwie and Ughelli north Local government areas in Delta State. The simple random sampling technique was adopted to select six hundred (600); of which two hundred and forty five (245) were Male students and three hundred and fifty five (355) were female students from eight (8) out of the twenty seven (27) Secondary schools. The instrument used to elicit responses from the respondents was: “Mathematics Multiple Choice Questionnaire Test (MMCQT)” of fifty (50) items. The study was guided by three (3) research questions and three (3) research hypotheses which were answered and tested by the mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics at 5% level of significance. The research study revealed that students whose Mathematics assessments include Mathematics incentives (Final Response Stage) have better performance than those Mathematics students whose Mathematics assessment was without Mathematics incentives (Initial Response Stage). The research recommends that teachers of Mathematics at the secondary level should include Mathematics incentives into the teaching and learning of Mathematics.